Important question

[Bernard]

me:  Are Muse cool? Is it ok to like them?
I feel like I'm about to like My Chemical Romance.
I'm going to like them either way, I just want to know if this going to be another Moves Like Jagger situation.

I know there is a rulebook about what it is ok to like and what will make you an object of ridicule. Please advise. Must I gird my loins, as it were?

[Chet]

Not to be blunt, but are you not a bit old for such concerns?


I don't think they are deemed 'cool' though, unless you are in France.

[Chet]

Plug in Baby, however, has an excellent riff.

[Bernard]

Is there an age at which one should be concerned? As noted, I'm going to like what I like, either way, but if I am going to be mocked it'd be nice to have a heads-up. Thanks, dude!

[Chet]

I dunno, I think maybe as early as the age of 23, one should stop being concerned about the levels of cool within popular culture.

Like you said, if yr gonna like it yr gonna like it. And really, if is it gonna cause you that much consternation if someone LOLs at you for taking a liking to a bad british 21st century prog rock band?

[Thermofusion]

Didn't someone post something here once about the Twilight authoress using Muse as a soundtrack for her writing sessions?

I haven't heard much of their music aside from that one anthemic ditty with the rh piano chords, but I guess Muse wanders the vast frontier between Radiohead and Coldplay on the good/bad British alternative rock spectrum, right?

Did you guys know Bush put a new album out recently?

[Antero]

Muse is fairly silly.  Not unjustifiable the way Coldplay is though.  There are no excuses for liking Coldplay.

I hear, from a friend who also doesn't care for Muse's music, that they are quite a good live band.

I didn't realize Bush still existed.

[Bernard]

Chet, it's possible you're reading in a different type of concern than the one I actually have. No worries, I'm 40, and happy to crank up my favorites.

I also didn't realize Bush still existed!

[jm]

There was a song that I thought was an uncharacteristically anthemic Radiohead thing that I liked, and I think I was told it was actually Muse.

[dieblucasdie]

Didn't someone post something here once about the Twilight authoress using Muse as a soundtrack for her writing sessions?

haha, this is the first thing I was going to mention. Muse are thanked profusely in the acknowledgements of all four books.

[Babar]

You are always going to catch flack for liking prog rock. That's part of the fun of liking prog rock.

[fishjim]

One of the servers at my pub plays Muse way more than is cool. But their fans are the only problem I have with them. Sort of a Grateful Dead problem. Maybe it's the hype about the live shows?

[alistarr*]

Muse were cool for about five minutes but then they carried on existing and quickly became about as cool as Coldplay. I mean, how cool something is obviously has nothing to do with how good it is, but that's what I know about how cool Muse have ever been.

It has at times been considered reasonable socially acceptable to act as a kind of half-hearted Muse apologist, but I'm 27 now so am way too old to comment whether that's currently the case. If you're in the 22-42 age bracket then any interest in coolness is obviously as an observer not a participant. After 42 it's probably as a heckler.

I really like that second album if I listen to it all in a row, but like hearing none of the songs separately.

I think My Chemical Romance are a lot cooler than Muse.

[elpollodiablo]

What a misleading thread title!

[nonotyet]

In TSKS's absence I feel it my duty as an American to emphatically say that you can like My Chemical Romance. I wish you had liked them last April so I could have convinced you to come to Milwaukee and see them with me. I would have loved to go but I literally do not know a soul in real life who likes them, and I didn't want to be surrounded by pseudo-goth teenagers alone, so I didn't see them. I deeply regret it. Especially every time I hear this song.
Also what do you mean by "Moves Like Jagger situation?"

[YojimboMonkey]

Oh man I just scrolled through this thread after reading the initial question to see if GI had responded yet. Disappointed he hasn't but I suppose I'll read the thread anyway.

I dig a few songs by them. I am not any kind of barometer of cool though.

[YojimboMonkey]

I feel that now is a good time to post this incredible music video though http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_sBOsh-vyI

[Bernard]

In TSKS's absence I feel it my duty as an American to emphatically say that you can like My Chemical Romance. I wish you had liked them last April so I could have convinced you to come to Milwaukee and see them with me. I would have loved to go but I literally do not know a soul in real life who likes them, and I didn't want to be surrounded by pseudo-goth teenagers alone, so I didn't see them. I deeply regret it. Especially every time I hear this song.
Also what do you mean by "Moves Like Jagger situation?"

I possibly have not ever heard a song of theirs besides the joooooooooooin the black paraaaaaade one, which didn't grab me. But I am open to persuasion! The Moves Like Jagger situation is one in which I became subjected to quite a bit of heckling for my devotion to that song, which is totally baffling. Have you seen the video? A bunch of sexy people dance around half naked, doing Mick Jagger impressions. I don't get what's not to like?

[Bernard]

I feel that now is a good time to post this incredible music video though http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_sBOsh-vyI

! I totally thought that was a parody/remix.

[dieblucasdie]

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9183757252098124406

[Black Amnesia of Heaven]

In TSKS's absence I feel it my duty as an American to emphatically say that you can like My Chemical Romance. I wish you had liked them last April so I could have convinced you to come to Milwaukee and see them with me. I would have loved to go but I literally do not know a soul in real life who likes them, and I didn't want to be surrounded by pseudo-goth teenagers alone, so I didn't see them. I deeply regret it. Especially every time I hear this song.

it is extremely cool to like my chemical romance. extremely cool. when they were doing the queen thing i thought they were doing it better than muse. both bands are now uncovering a synthy realm within, i also think mcr do this better

[fishjim]

B, I'm going to piggyback on your thread with a cool ? of my own.

I learned via the FB recently that a guy from my high school crowd is one half of the Rondo Brothers, who seem to have a decent following.

Thing is, I fell out of touch with this guy in my 20s. He was always in one band or another around town, but they never grabbed me, so I stopped keeping up. Did things change? Do I owe it to our formative years as weed-smoking teens to give this new stuff a chance?

And if I do like it - are the Rondo Brothers cool? Define cool however you want.

[davy]

I have not heard of the Rondo Bros., so in that sense, at least, they are cool.

[Bernard]

Piggybacking is COOL ICE.

[fishjim]

You know, typing "piggyback" in that post was the first time it ever sounded remotely graphic. Shame on you, LPTJ!